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On not meditating

Meditation came up in discussion with one of my blog followers recently and I was saying that I don’t meditate at all. I find that this often causes people to be surprised for there is a common assumption that anyone who is in any way spiritual must meditate.

It is known that practicing meditation brings great benefits. The studies that have taken place on the effects meditation has on the brain and therefore on mental health all support the benefit of daily meditation. I have no idea on a personal level though as I have never been able to meditate at all.

Instead of meditation I practice Reiki. Studies have also shown that Reiki has a similar effect on the brain to meditation but although it makes me be still and focused I am aware that it is not actually meditation. I also spend time in light trance when working with clients which in itself is a way of finding stillness but again it is not meditation. Likewise when I undergo shamanic journeying, I am still, I am in a trance like state, and sometimes may appear to be asleep but again I am not meditating, far from it.

The practices I work with are in fact the opposite to meditation. In most forms of meditation the aim I believe is to clear and empty the mind or focus on one thing like a mantra for example. In Reiki, most of the time, my mind even though at rest is aware of the energy, paying attention and receiving information. In light trance with clients I am receiving information constantly and then acting on that information. When journeying I am again gathering information, making decisions and choices and, as before, although I appear at rest and my mind relaxed it is still in some way, active. Rather than emptying my mind the practices I work with fill it but not in the same way that the Ordinary Reality that is everyday life does. Probably the nearest I get is when I go for a meditative walk, focusing as I place my feet upon the earth, the feel of it beneath me and the Earth energy I breathe in with each step that I take.

In the past I have tried to meditate but because I can shift into trance at will it is easy for me to do so and the space that others use to meditate I use to journey. When I first began training in Chios Energy Healing I worked very hard to practice the Orange-Red Ball Meditation that is part of Chios but had to contact my teacher for help as whenever I did this I would end up, not where I was supposed to be, but journeying. Yet I am most of the time, quite relaxed, my mental health is good, my mindfulness and being in the moment is part of what I try to do as I move through my day. I fully believe that for some people, like me, meditation is not a prerequisite for being able to walk a spiritual path in any way.

I also believe it is important to find the way that works for you and only you can know this, whether it be meditation or anything else. As with everything is it also important not to feel pressurised by anyone or anything to do something that doesn’t fit, nor be led to believe that what you do is any less because it is not the norm. When working with students I always explain this to them, that what many of us offer are suggestions, possible tools but their job is to decide which ones work, which ones sit well with them and which ones they wish to make part of their life or practice, knowing that everything else will be there if and when they need to make use of it.

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6 thoughts on “On not meditating”

Wow. Thank you for that insight. It’s always wonderful to have a chance to see past my assumptions. I always saw my trance state as an extension of my meditative practice. But I realize thats probably because I live so much in my head that I needed to work so hard to still the mind. I have noticed that since I have intensified my energetic purification practices that the trance state is so much deeper and more accessible than it used to be.

I think that’s what’s happened with me over the years. The more I have worked on myself the quieter my mind has become. I actually think it needs to be quiet in order to receive otherwise there is no room so to speak.

I’d love to hear what meditative you use to help you go into shamanic trance sometime if you don’t mind sharing.

Sure, of course I would be happy to share. Earlier on in my spiritual practice when I was just doing the sort of meditation where you focus all awareness on the breath, I would sometimes feel this high pitch resonance surrounding me (very similar to what I have had just before going into a lucid dreaming state, but upright in the half lotus position with Dhyani Mudra) and I started having what I would call mild visionary experiences through my third eye. In these cases I would still be very aware of my physical body but was viewing shifting patterns of kaleidoscopic psychic imagery that grew more and more vivid and lifelike, the more yoga, pranayama and breath focus, meditation that I did. Beyond the breath focus meditation, there was something called the no thought state, deeper still, the no breath state. From all of these states I have experienced some form of transition into what I would call shamanic journeying experiences. The more I purified my subtle energetic system became through these practices, the more profound these visionary experiences became until the point where I sensed myself in direct alignment with the expression of my energetic body, and able to make contact and recieve useful information from various inter-dimensional beings. The most reliable method I have developed for getting into that state thus far, is a combination of yogic pranayama or Qi Gong breathing, a deep chakra cleansing visualisation (a metatronic thirteen chakra system including, two earth chakras below and four extra ones above ) after that I settle into a light meditation and then I’m deeply present in that other reality, whilst still being aware very peripherally of the material plane. Ironically there will be times when I just settle in for nothing more than a light meditation open my crown chakra to source and it’s like the other dimensional reality pushes it ways into this side of the veil. There seems to be a too and fro quality ( I visit them, they visit me. ) I have built a rapport with different kinds of beings there seems to be a common meeting point between this world and thiers, many of the beings are from higher dimensional realities, but can make themselves known through this meeting point.

Thanks for sharing. I’ve had a quick read between clients and will read it properly over the weekend when hopefully I will have time. I have done both Tai Chi/chi Kung and yoga so know the breathing and pranic breath you are talking about. I do know some who teach Holotropic Breathwork in their advanced shamanism courses and have a friend who uses breath to journey. Have a good weekend.

I am an author, a shamanic and energy healer and an OBOD Ovate. My path has been eclectic and always independent in that I have learnt in the main from my guides plus the occasional human and flexible distance learning hence the name of my blog.
I am also a colour pencil and watercolour artist and my website/blog can me found at http://yvonneryvesart.wordpress.com